Abstract: This proposal seeks to obtain moderate resolution and signal-to- noise NIR stellar spectra to test the nature of and characterize newly identified IR clusters recently uncovered in the inner Galactic disk using the \emphSpitzer Space Telescope. Our ultimate goal is to expand our current census of the Milky Way's inner stellar disk to guide models seeking to understand the structure and recent star formation history of our Galaxy. Moreover, this spectroscopic program is critical to confirm the accuracy and characterize the bias of our present cluster search methods which combine the \emphSpitzer/GLIMPSE and 2MASS photometric surveys.